What should i do about the serving hatch?

[PinkOboe]

I'd assumed we'd just brick it up as we're re-doing tke kitchen and it's all off centre. but now the day is nearly here i find myself googling pictures and thinking about enlarging it instead

we've never used it, on the kitchen side it's a shelf for cookery books, on the other it's hidden by a big picture frame

i'd quite like a long thin one like this. but my house is not glamourous, the kitchen is usually a mess...oh and it's a solid masonry supporting wall

it needs to go doesn't it?

[PigletJohn]

if you want to enlarge it, you will need a longer steel to support the blockwork above.

IMO a hatch looks OK if it is canteen sized (at least twice as wide as it is high). The bottom must be worktop height, and the top must be high enough for you top look through without crouching. I expect you will want hinged doors or a fold-down flap that you can use as a counter for putting stuff on. It must hinge into the room, not into the kitchen.

[PinkOboe]

Thank pj. That's much what i was thinking. Sounds expensive.

I think it'll have to go

[Blueskies80]

We have just re opened our hatch up, it's just a sleek minimalist opening but not on a wall with cupboards etc. I was wearing a hole in the floor walkin round food to dining table and although our new kitchen layout means we have a table in it we will also use the dining room for family meals at weekends so the hatch will hopefully make it a lot easier to get the food to the table. Good luck!

[Clawdy]

We kept the serving hatch in our 1960s house which we moved into last month. Most people assumed we'd get rid when the new kitchen was put in, but we decided to keep it,and it's been incredibly useful!

[cricketpitch]

We bricked up the door between kitchen and dining room in our 60s house, (there were four doors in a smallish kitchen) but kept the hatch - and it got used all the time. Really handy for serving and clearing the table quickly.

Now I don't have a dining room - but a big eat-in kitchen - but there are times when if I could have both I would - and then I definitely have a serving hatch.

[Lelivre]

Pink - love the picture. I'm quite tempted myself. I've had the same thought having recently moved.

Originally we thought we would create an open kitchen-diner but living with it now, a separate dining room is pretty nice. We have room for sofa, dining table and play area. I'm thinking a modern hatch like that gives the practicality without the all the kitchen noise and mess especially if there is a (stylish and modern?) way to close the hatch up.

[culturemulcher]

I think serving hatches are going to be one of the features people look for in a 60s/70s house in about 10 years time. Don't take it out!

Think of it as the equivalent of a gorgeous Edwardian tiled hallway for generations to come